The present invention relates to floats or buoys attached to one end of a line that may be used as lifelines to a swimmer in need of help, when the other end of the cord is held at a safe area, or used as marking buoys, when the other end of the line is attached to an anchor dropped in the water.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,911,515 to Rinfret et al discloses a device to be used as a lifeline, which may be carried on board a vessel and disassembled so that one end may be thrown to a swimmer in need of help while the other end of the line is maintained on board ship. There are a number of disadvantages of this device. The device is too complex and costly to be widely used. A main portion of the weight in the throwing part is the coiled line, which, of course, weight will become less as the line is uncoiled, therefore making accurate throwing difficult. However, accurate throwing is essential, because the portion thrown is very small and not easily seen by the swimmer needing help, once it strikes the water. This prior art device may be used only once, which makes practice throws almost impossible, because the coil is coiled on a spool where it cannot be recoiled accurately because the center spindle and narrow neck are likely to cause jamming if the cord is stuffed back into the bottle. Further, the open bottle that is used as a buoy to strike the water has a very small cubic inch displacement that makes floating difficult, and further the bottle may easily fill with water so that it may quickly sink.